The use of electronic devices has grown significantly in recent years. Along with this growth comes an increased number of devices with cosmetic defects being sent back to manufacturers for repairs or to be refurbished for redistribution. Defective devices may include those that have cosmetic defects, such as components that are cracked, shattered, warped, malfunctioning, scratched, missing, or any other type of damage that may occur to the exterior of such devices. Components may include any part of the device that is included according to the manufacturers' device specifications, including but not limited to external casing materials, displays, buttons, scroll wheels, input and output ports, microphones, speakers, cameras, protective covers, battery compartment covers, keyboards, and so forth. Processing such defective devices still requires significant amount of human interaction and effort, which is costly and does not maximize efficiency. Consequently, there is a need for more automated processing techniques to reduce the need for human involvement.
When a consumer reports that an electronic device, such as a cell phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), e-Book, tablet, or TV set-top box, is broken and returns it to a supplier, the device is often sent back to the manufacturer or designated handler of defective devices. In many cases, an inspector must then manually inspect the electronic device to determine any damaged or defective parts. The inspector then often makes the recommendation to order particular replacement parts for the device or decides that the device is irreparable and a replacement is required. Given the time required for an inspector to manually inspect the electronic device for defective parts and then look up replacement parts to restore the device, the number of devices an inspector may process for a given period of work time is restricted.